Wisely reflecting, I use this food not for fun, not for pleasure, not for fattening, not for beautification, but only for the maintenance and nourishment of this body, for keeping it healthy, for helping with the Spiritual Life;Thinking thus, I will allay hunger without overeating, so that I may continue to live blamelessly and at ease.

Admiral wrote:On a side note, does any one of you know a pali prayer to say/chant before eating?I've been searching that cause it would be a great way to abstain from eating sweets and stuff

If you do a search on 'repulsiveness of nutriment' you should be able to find a thread I started months ago which includes a transcription on the contemplation of the repulsiveness of nutriment that is in the Visuddhimagga.kind regards

Ben

“No lists of things to be done. The day providential to itself. The hour. There is no later. This is later. All things of grace and beauty such that one holds them to one's heart have a common provenance in pain. Their birth in grief and ashes.” - Cormac McCarthy, The Road

Learn this from the waters:in mountain clefts and chasms,loud gush the streamlets,but great rivers flow silently.- Sutta Nipata 3.725

I couldn't agree more, alan!repulsiveness is not intended to generate aversion.Rather, it is to develop discernment and to see food for what it really is.That's all!kind regards

Ben

“No lists of things to be done. The day providential to itself. The hour. There is no later. This is later. All things of grace and beauty such that one holds them to one's heart have a common provenance in pain. Their birth in grief and ashes.” - Cormac McCarthy, The Road

Learn this from the waters:in mountain clefts and chasms,loud gush the streamlets,but great rivers flow silently.- Sutta Nipata 3.725

Hi AlanThere is already a thread on repulsiveness of nutriment that I mentioned earlier.

Like many other things, the sensory pleasure of food can become a powerful source of craving which can lead to obsession. And here, when I say craving I don't mean the pangs of hunger that one might experience from time to time when one does not eat. The kind of craving I'm talking about is the craving of the sensory pleasure of eating one's favourite things.Eating is so fundamental and because it is a sensory activity, craving, aversion and attachment to food or to the foods we enjoy can run very deep. So, the point of the exercise of 'repulsiveness of nutriment' is merely to break one's attachment to the sensory pleasure of inbibing and eating and view food as merely a remedy for hunger. As I said earlier, despite the language used and the descriptions given in the Vism, like maranasati (charnel-ground contemplation), the object is not to develop aversion, rather dispassion.kind regards

Ben

“No lists of things to be done. The day providential to itself. The hour. There is no later. This is later. All things of grace and beauty such that one holds them to one's heart have a common provenance in pain. Their birth in grief and ashes.” - Cormac McCarthy, The Road

Learn this from the waters:in mountain clefts and chasms,loud gush the streamlets,but great rivers flow silently.- Sutta Nipata 3.725

I'm just wondering whether anyone has used protein formulas (meal replacement) to assist in weight loss and what your experience has been.Thanks

Ben

“No lists of things to be done. The day providential to itself. The hour. There is no later. This is later. All things of grace and beauty such that one holds them to one's heart have a common provenance in pain. Their birth in grief and ashes.” - Cormac McCarthy, The Road

Learn this from the waters:in mountain clefts and chasms,loud gush the streamlets,but great rivers flow silently.- Sutta Nipata 3.725

Thanks for your comments. Sprinting's out of the question courtesy of an old injury to my knees thanks to years of Aikido when I was a lot younger.Lifting weights at the moment involves lifting boxes of fruit, moving logs and lifting other heavy and awkward bits and pieces when I do my maintenance and gardening routines.When I'm at home I can replace one meal a day with a protein shake. When I'm up on my own in the valley I can get away with replacing two meals a day with protein shakes. The formula I'm using is one designed for complementing fitness and incl. 30g of protein per drink. I haven't invested a great deal in the strategy, I've only purchased one 1kg container of powder, so I'm just more interested in giving it a go and seeing what it can do.Of course, your tips and suggestions will be gratefully received.kind regards

Ben

“No lists of things to be done. The day providential to itself. The hour. There is no later. This is later. All things of grace and beauty such that one holds them to one's heart have a common provenance in pain. Their birth in grief and ashes.” - Cormac McCarthy, The Road

Learn this from the waters:in mountain clefts and chasms,loud gush the streamlets,but great rivers flow silently.- Sutta Nipata 3.725

Losing weight is a matter of using more energy ( which is measured in kilocalories or in every day terms, just "calories" ) than you take in. That is always the case no matter the regime or the diet. Anyone who claims differently is trying to sell someone something.

The best approach is to increase your exercise and track how much you eat.

Experts say it is best to lose no more than 1 - 2 pounds a weak. The more slowly the weight is taken off the greater the chance that it will stay off and the greater the chance is that the weight lost will be more fat than lean tissue ( you will be firmer instead of flabby at your goal weight ).

A fun system for teaching you how to track your dietary intake and weight loss is "The Hacker's Diet". It was made by an engineer who became rich and had everything he wanted in life except freedom from his life long weight problem. He decided to apply what he knew best, engineering principals, to weight management. The result is his free ebook, called "The Hacker's Diet". Totally free, no promotions, no gimmicks, no crazy rules. You can eat whatever you want.

In reading the scriptures, there are two kinds of mistakes:One mistake is to cling to the literal text and miss the inner principles.The second mistake is to recognize the principles but not apply them to your own mind, so that you waste time and just make them into causes of entanglement.

Check out my weight diary to see how I've lost 19kg (42 pounds) in just over one year!

I am on the path, however not yet advanced. Any opinions or insights I share are meant entirely for discussion purposes and in cases where people might find them beneficial in whatever way. Since I am not advanced on the Path, I cannot guarantee that what I say will always necessarily be 100% true or in line with the Dhamma. However, having had an extremely interesting life with a wide variety of different (many of them deep) experiences, I hope that anything I share will be of use, provide food for thought, and inspire interesting and beneficial discussions.